Laboratory Publications Most Accessible to Non-Psychologists

These articles were especially written for a more general audience than psychologists

Mayer, J. D. & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D. Sluyter (Eds), Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Implications for Educators (pp. 3-31). New York: Basic Books. This paper provides the original presentation of the four-branch model of emotional intelligence and discusses it. This remains the major restatement of our 1990 theory, and represents our current model of emotional intelligence.

Mayer, J. D. (September, 1999). Emotional Intelligence: Popular or scientific psychology? APA Monitor, 30, 50. [Shared Perspectives column] Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. By 1999, the popularizations of emotional intelligence in the general media were gaining influence in the field. We grew concerned about claims being made in the popular press concerning emotional intelligence. This editorial in the American Psychological Association's news magazine, the Monitor, was a response to that concern.

[This file is in color and may take some time to open.] Cobb, C., & Mayer, J. D. (2000). Emotional intelligence: What the research says. Educational Leadership, 58, 14-18. [Reprinted in Duffy, K. G. (Ed.), Annual Editions: Psychology 02/03 (32nd Edition), pp. 113-117. Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill/Duskin]. Many discussions of emotional intelligence in the popular media (e.g., TIME and elsewhere) were aimed at generating a program of instruction related to emotional intelligence. My colleagues and I wrote this article to communicate the scientific findings of the time to those educational leaders interested in emotional intelligence.

Mayer, J. D. (2004). Be realistic. Harvard Business Review, 82, 28. This brief commentary cautions those interested in the emotional intelligence concept to be clear about what emotional intelligence is and isn't. It is (from this perspective) a mental ability involving emotions; it isn't optimism, motivation, etc.